This lecture discusses about language in America.

1. 7. English Language in America
Lecture No. 7
Zafar Ullah,
zafarullah76@gmail.com

2. Settlement in America
• Columbus discovered America on 3rd August,
1492.
• Potato crop failed in Ireland, 1.5 million Irish
people moved to USA.
• Failure of 1848 revolution in Germany, civil war
broke out, 1.5 million Germans migrated to USA.
• In 1875, 1 million Scandinavians moved to USA.
• 3 lac Italians went to USA.
• During 17th century to 19th century, 25 million
blacks were enslaved.
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3. 13 British Colonies
• 13 colonies were made in 3 areas New England,
Middle Atlantic States, South Atlantic States.
• 200 vessels came from England to New England,
1500 English immigrants and many more came to
USA.
• Dutch settled in New York.
• New Jersey was almost English.
• Philadelphia was English.
• Reasons: Gold, God, Growth
• Religious persecutions 3

4. The Middle West
• In Alabama, Mississippi, half population is black.
• Lousians was a French colony.
• From 3 routes, immigrants entered.
• Number of population and majority changed.
• Only Michigan and Wisconsian were English.
• The Far West
• Gold was discovered in California. Its population
changed from 2000 to 1,50,000 population.
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5. Map of American States
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6. Uniformity of American English
• Colonialism spread.
• Uniformity in spoken English to some extent.
• Cooper said that local linguistic differences exist.
• Americans change place frequently.
• Mexican: chocolate, chili, tomato
• Cuba, West Indies: barbecue, cannibalism
• Brazil: Jaguar
• India: banana, bangle
• Far East: mango, indigo
• Persian: milk, sugar
• Australia: kangaroo 6

7. Noah Webster and American Language
• Father of American scholarship and Education
• He was an advocate, then he moved to American
English and teaching.
• Firstly, he imported books from Europe.
• Americans wanted to become distinct.
• He wrote 3 books
• i.‘The American Spelling Book’ 80 million copies
were sold in 100 years.
• ii. In ‘An American Dictionary’, he wrote
etymology with meanings.
• Iii. ‘Dissertations on the English Language’
(spelling book) 7

8. Cont…
• Under Webster’s influence, Dr Franklin worked on
spelling reforms. Firstly, Webster rejected Franklin’s
work but later liked his work.
• New England Dialect in USA
• Southern dialect in USA
• ‘A Word Geography of the Eastern United States’
by Prof. Hans Kurath in 1949.
• ‘The Controversy Over Americanism’ (Catholics and
US culture controversy)
• Americanism is an American identity, patriotic
values.
• Americans corrupted English language. 8

9. Cont…
• In 1816, John Pickering
wrote ‘A Vocabulary’ peculiar
words, phrases in USA
society.
• In 1848, John R. Bartlet
wrote
‘Dictionary of Americanisms’
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10. Publications on Americanism
• In 19th century, American English was the branch
of Philology. Pioneers are George Hempl.
• American dialect society was made.
• Journal ‘Dialect Notes’ was started.
• ‘American Language’ by H. L. Menckan.
• ‘American Speech’
• ‘English Language in America’ by G.P. Krapp
• ‘A Dictionary of American English on Historical
Principles’ by Sir William Craigie
• ‘Dictionary of American Regional English’ by F.G.
Cassidy 10

11. Great American Linguists
• Noam Chomsky’s ‘Syntactic Structures’
• William Labov’s work on pronunciation of rich
and poor classes, gender
• American Words in General Use
• Telephone, phonograph, typewriter, graft, stump,
jazz, joy, ride, bucket, shop, placate, antagonize
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